The community ranking site Niche recently named Arlington the best “city” for millennials. That accolade came on the heels of the real estate marketplace site Zillow ranking Clarendon as the DC area’s best neighborhood for millennials.

Yet despite young peoples’ clear attraction to Arlington, they are often underrepresented in the County’s civic life.

“The common misconception is that millennials don’t care about government,” said Melissa Riggio, a millennial living in the Ballston area. “What, to me, is more accurate, is that we connect to government in different ways than the generation before us, so it can go unseen by those who are unaccustomed to it.”

To find out what aspects of the community and local government interest millennials, County staff decided to ask them. This spring, the County partnered with the Ballston Business Improvement District (BID) to host a “happy hour” with County Board Vice Chair Katie Cristol.

The goal: determine the areas of civic interest to residents in their twenties and thirties and connect them with convenient ways to engage — online or in-person— with plenty of time commitment options.

More than five dozen young people attended the May 31 meet-and-greet at the BID’s offices, all contributing to an evening of thoughtful and constructive dialogue about trending topics in Arlington – from keeping exotic pets to rising housing costs – plus ways to grow County outreach and create an inclusive engagement model not just for millennials, but for all Arlingtonians.

Riggio said she found the event worthwhile. “I was able to talk one-on-one with Katie Cristol as well as several other [local leaders] in an informal environment,” said Riggio. “The more that millennials connect to their local government and see what they can do ‘hands-on’ so to speak, the more engagement there will be from them.”

In an effort to keep that conversation going, the County offers the new Engage Arlington forum for millennials – and everyone else – to share what matters most to them. It’s a quick way to contribute new ideas, comment on the insights of others and vote suggestions up or down on the viability of suggestions. It’s a robust online idea-sharing hub for those issues that are in the news, currently affecting you, or just on your mind.

Already millennials are using the page to speak up.

Katie Casey, an Arlington renter, expressed appreciation toward Arlington’s on-going commitment to the environment. But she’s hoping the County can do more to develop programs for renters committed to sustainability besides simple steps like using LEDs and blocking drafts around windows and doors. “There are efficiency rebates and solar co-ops, but those are for homeowners,” she points out, hoping to see more incentives for those who don’t own their residence.

The Engage page is worth revisiting on a regular basis to keep up with the latest Arlington engagement opportunities held either in-person or virtually. There are also subscription links for email updates, County emergency notifications, social media and other ways to become more involved. Learn about volunteering, join a civic association, or apply to serve on an advisory group or commission.

Young people inject new life and energy into Arlington’s neighborhoods, businesses, culture and nightlife. By getting involved, millennials can help shape and develop the kind of Arlington they’ll want to call home for a long time to come.

The richly illustrated booklet from Kim A. O’Connell, also downloadable for free, documents and interprets the impact of Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian immigrants who concentrated around the faded pre-Metro commercial center of Clarendon after the 1975 fall of South Vietnam.

In person Thursday, April 7: Pulitzer winner Anthony Doerr on “All the Light We Cannot See”

Confronting Japanese internment

Arlington Public Library delves this spring into life during wartime—on the homefront and amid the lasting devastation produced by hatreds that can cross any border.

Just in time for Arlington Reads 2016, Central Library is hosting an artifact-rich exhibition on Arlington County in World War II. It’s the story of a community undergoing rapid transition from fading farms to new home to the Pentagon, all while sending its young men to fight in Europe and the Pacific.

The exhibition highlights the often unheralded role of women who served essential roles in the war effort and maintained domestic life amid sacrifice.

“We’re stepping back to the 1940s with this exhibit and these visiting authors to show how quickly the world changed at home and overseas,” Library Director Diane Kresh said. “But ultimately the themes of human suffering and surprising courage appear timeless and seem to confront every generation.”

Scrapbooks from the Woman’s Club of Arlington document a number of local wartime enterprises, including the Arlington Recreation Center for Servicemen.

The displays range from poignant letters home, combat boots, banners, music albums and “Victory” cookbooks to sometimes-grisly Horrors of War trading cards meant as social commentary, folk art and propaganda. The exhibition also includes a listening station of Arlington-at-war recollections culled from the Center’s hundreds of recorded oral histories.

Arlington Read 2016

The Arlington Reads 2016 series of special author events kicks off Thursday, April 7 at Washington-Lee High School Auditorium with Anthony Doerr, author of “All the Light We Cannot See.” Doerr, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, will discuss his haunting narrative of a blind French girl and a German boy whose lives come together amid the destruction of occupied France.

At Mr. Doerr’s request, his presentation will not be recorded for future on-demand viewing, so readers are encouraged to see him in person during his visit to Arlington. Doors open at 6 p.m. for the 7 p.m. program.

On Thursday, May 5, 7 p.m. at Central Library, Julie Otsuka discusses “When the Emperor was Divine,” her acclaimed debut novel based loosely on her family’s history with a Utah internment camp for Japanese Americans during the Second World War.

Also at Central Library, on Thursday, May 19 at 7 p.m., best-selling historian and journalist Richard Reeves discusses “Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II.”

]]>Media Alert: Arlington Celebrates Two New Group Homes as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month Beginshttps://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/release/media-alert-arlington-celebrates-two-new-group-homes-as-developmental-disabilities-awareness-month-begins/
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 21:16:25 +0000http://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/?post_type=news_release&p=7308The public is invited to join the Arlington County Board at a proclamation ceremony on Tuesday, March 1 declaring March 2016 “Including People with Developmental Disabilities Month.” The Board and County staff will celebrate the recent opening of two new group homes in Arlington for residents with intellectual disabilities who had been living in state-run regional institutions.

If you require auxiliary aids (e.g. sign language interpretation) or materials in alternative formats, please call 703-228-1700 or 703-228-1788 TTY to request accommodations at least three business days in advance of this event.